Navigating Book Marketing With Antina Van der Veen: TikTok, BookTok, And Authentic Creator Campaigns

Are you struggling with book marketing in the age of BookTok and shrinking budgets? Today, we sit down with Antina van der Veen, founder of BookInfluencers.com and co-founder of ChallyPop, a specialized agency dedicated to connecting authors and publishers with book-focused creators.

Antina shares her journey and reveals the secrets to authentic and effective promotion. Learn why User-Generated Content (UGC) campaigns are the genuine, less ‘salesy’ way to sell books, allowing companies to use creator creativity on their own corporate channels. We discuss the importance of aligning with the book community’s values—which are open-minded and supportive of diversity—and why ChallyPop vets every book to ensure an authentic fit with their creators. Plus, Antina explains why compensating creators is not a bribe, but a necessary token of appreciation for their time and platform. If you want to leverage the power of specialized creator marketing and future-proof your book promotion strategy, this episode is a must-listen.

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Navigating Book Marketing With Antina Van der Veen: TikTok, BookTok, And Authentic Creator Campaigns

You guys have all been sending me emails saying, “I want to know more about TikTok.” For this episode, we have Antina van der Veen. She is the Founder and CEO of BookInfluencers.com, and the co-founder of ChallyPop. Both companies have a strong focus on book marketing from book tours to TikTok spark ads, promotions, and UGC content.

Antina lives in the Netherlands and works from home with a team of freelancers from all over the world. You’re finally going to get the scoop on how to use TikTok influencers. I’m excited for all of you guys. Now that it’s changed over to the US, I’m even more excited because I wasn’t a big fan of TikTok before when China owned it. Now, I think Antina can lower some of those fears of information being stolen and things like that. Stay tuned for the conversation with Antina and I.

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Welcome, Antina. It’s great to have you on the show.

Thank you. It’s great to be here.

Many of my people are constantly asking me about TikTok and I’ve been hesitant. You and I had this discussion because the Chinese owned it and now the Americans owned it. I know you probably have some updates on that because it’s changed a little bit. Tell me why you got into this? How did you get into this?

Evolution Of Book Influencer Marketing

I used to work as a freelance social media manager for big corporate companies in the Netherlands. That was many years ago. One of my last jobs was working for the Dutch Royal Library in The Hague. They used to have an app called Online Bibliotheek, which means online library. That would offer eBooks and audiobooks to the Dutch citizens for a very cheap price and with the idea of motivating people to read more.

We would use all these different marketing techniques to reach the audience because first, you need to make sure that you get into their homes so they even know about the app. We used all these different ways like newsletters. We also figured out that it would make a lot of sense to use creators on Instagram and later on also on TikTok, but that was not a thing a few years ago. It was mostly Instagram and YouTube.

We would talk to these 20- to 25-year-old girls who had a huge passion for reading. I was very intrigued by them because they were so enthusiastic about sharing their passion with anyone who wants to listen to them. I basically contracted them to make content for the library to talk about the app. They would encourage their followers to test the app. From that idea came more and more collaborations between the library and them.

I would talk to them in a bar to have a chat after work. They would tell me about the frustrations they were having as well. They saw that influencers in fashion or in traveling would get all these opportunities. They have basically nothing other than getting a free book now and then. I thought about it for a while.

I then decided maybe there’s a business there and I should start a company helping those book influencers to connect with authors and publishers. That’s how I started BookInfluencers.com. We basically facilitate book tours and also campaigns on TikTok. Later on, I set up an extra new company called ChallyPop, where we do UGC campaigns. We do all sorts of marketing campaigns, but for the book industry.

That’s great. Can you define a UGC campaign for my audience in case they don’t know what that is?

Strategic Utility Of User-Generated Content (UGC)

We are used to asking influencers to post on their personal channels because we like to reach their audiences through them. UGC means user-generated content, which is authentic and strong. People believe in user generated content more than in commercials like videos and content. What we see companies do is that they ask creators to make videos or pictures. Those companies may use it on their corporate channels and in their corporate ads like the Meta ads and the TikTok ads.

It doesn’t feel too salesy. It feels more genuine. The big difference between the regular influencer campaigns and UGC is that the influencer will not post the content onto their personal Channel. They will not give you the reach of their channel. They will give you their creativity and make something for you to use as an author or as a publisher.

That’s great because that takes out that corporate like that stiff video that people are using and makes it very authentic. I can see how that would be a much more effective tool to sell things, because it doesn’t feel like they’re being sold to.

It doesn’t feel like an ad. People feel like they are still watching a regular BookTok video and it feels less salesy.

Exactly. Let me ask you this, because one of the things we talked about a little bit when we discussed this before was the values. How did your earlier experience with book influencers, and working with creators shape your core mission and your values behind ChallyPop? That conversation we had was important about your values.

Do you mean our values in terms of the fact that we are pro diversity and stuff like that?

Exactly.

If you work in a book community, you will see we are all individuals and everyone has their own thing that they are interested about. For many people in the book community, they are very open-minded and very interested. I’m saying they but I don’t mean that’s 100%. A lot of them are very open-minded and interested in what’s happening in the world. They think they are doing the wrong things to minorities.

The book community is a very caring community and very open to different ethnicities, different minorities to different perspectives. Most of them are also very supportive of the LGBTQ Community. It can sometimes be limiting as well because there are also books that might not fit into that regular community.

I’m not saying that all people in the book community are the same because they are not. It’s something that we always keep in mind if authors and publishers come to us. If they have a book that we think is maybe stepping on a lot of toes, then we don’t go there because we don’t want to make people angry basically.

We don’t want to be controversial, but I definitely agree with you. People who are readers do keep up on world events more just because they’re readers. They’re interested in a lot of different things they see. Thank you for that because I did want to get to that. That was such an important part of our conversation. For someone who’s completely new to all of this, can you explain what the typical challenge that someone would work with you guys would have from a creator’s perspective

Do you mean what UGC campaign would entail?

There’s challenges for creators doing it themselves versus what you guys do. Let’s say that I’m super uncomfortable. I’m a Creator as well, but let’s say that I wasn’t. I’m super uncomfortable doing these things. What challenges can you help these people overcome by creating that for them?

Authenticity Through Lived Experience

The UGC campaigns that we are running, we reach out to creators that we think are a good fit for a book. So UGC campaigns can be done for every genre, basically from fiction to non-fiction, from very difficult subjects, and children’s books. Everything. The most important thing is that we will always look for creators that are relevant to the subject. Let’s say a publisher comes to us with a book on endometriosis. We would search for a creator that knows what it is because of first-hand experience and can talk about it.

It’s more about storytelling. We will never ask a creator to fantasize. They don’t have to make up a story to promote something. They should talk more from their own experiences because that’s way more authentic. If I didn’t have a disease like that or a situation like that, if I would have to speak about endometriosis, I would have no idea what to say. I would probably read the back of the cover to tell people what the book would be about.

For creators, it’s important that they can relate to the subjects. If you can relate to the subject, you are more natural in speaking about it. Even speaking about it on camera because the biggest tip for any creator is please make a video and speak to the camera in a way you would speak to a friend. You would explain why you’re enthusiastic about something and why it moves you. We cannot create creators. They are already there. If a publisher or an author comes to us, we would first look within the community that’s already there that’s creating videos and feels comfortable on screen. You can teach people how to be more natural on screen as well.

Going back to that endometriosis. If you have someone who’s experienced they know what those pain points are. It comes off very authentically versus, “I just read this on Perplexity or ChatGPT and now I’m going to reagitate it back to you.”

We could all do it if it would be as simple as that. Also with the children’s picture book. You’d rather have a mother reading it to her child and then using the feedback that the child gives about how to then sell that book to the viewers than a seventeen-year-old talking about a children’s picture book. That makes no sense. We always search for creators that fit the story that fit the book. Sometimes the conclusion is, it’s impossible because we cannot find anyone that has a relation to the subject. That can happen. Most of the time we do find people, though.

We will give you her website at the end but this is not something where you just go click and you buy. She looks at every book so that she knows that she can provide someone that will do a good job. That’s important too. It’s just not, click Antina, take it, and do it. You’re just like, “What do I do with this?”

The Specialized Selection Process

Definitely not. If I get a question from a client, I will first ask, “Please give me some details about the book. What’s your website link or your Amazon link? We will take a look and discuss within the team if this is doable for us.” If we think it’s undoable, we will say right away. If we think it is doable, then we will help you and make a pre-selection of candidates. We will come back to you with a few names and say, “These are people that we think would be a good fit and here’s why. Please choose your favorite from these people that are willing to create content for you.” It’s also possible to work with multiple creators. It’s not a one-size-fits-all solution.

This is not a tricky question, but a lot of marketers out there are facing shrinking budgets. The creators are fatigued and feeling that they’re underpaid when they do it themselves as well. How do you persuade a skeptical marketing team? How do you persuade them that you’re the answer to work with them? I look at the quality of your work and I was persuaded pretty easily. If you’re the average person where you have all these choices. I know people go over to Fiverr. I can’t figure out why because you don’t know what you’re getting there. Why would they choose you guys?

It’s because we know and we are within the book community. We started this story with me being at the Royal Library wanting to work with influencers. What I did at first, because I thought it was the easy solution, is that I went to various websites offering influencer services. I would sign up, and I would pay. I then would start my search. I’m demotivated after because I get all these girls in bathing suits and these boys with big muscles. No one was a reader.

Maybe you will find people who are interested in working with you simply because you’re waiving some dollars for them. Don’t you want to work with people that read? Also, read the subject that you wrote about that has a relation to the subject. I am very confused that being within the book community specializing in books gives us a head start over all those more general agencies that have other interests and are more into other sectors. We are books only. It doesn’t get more specialized than that. That would be the main reason to come to us.

Do you find people are reading less and less? I’m noticing that a lot. Do you guys do audiobooks? I feel like people are moving a little bit towards audiobooks.

I don’t feel that necessarily, but I also think that my reality being in the book community for almost 100% of my working time is not very realistic. Not all my friends read, but working in a book community sometimes feel that everyone reads because you’re within that book community. I don’t know if audiobooks are more interesting.

I like reading audiobooks to combine it with any core or having to drive the car, and then putting on an audiobook. It’s an easy way to fill up my time while doing something. I don’t know if people are reading less. I have not looked into any reports on that lately. Maybe it’s true. I’m not sure. It doesn’t mean that I don’t feel that, I don’t have less work.

I see the audiobooks on the rise and to be honest, I don’t have a lot of time to read anymore. As I sit here and work all day, I listen to audiobooks because I love mysteries. Do you guys promote audiobooks at all? Do your influencers do that?

Yes. We are working with a client now that does audiobooks only. We have creators making videos with their headphones on and pretending to listen to the audiobook while making a video about it. We had quite some fun in the team when we had this erotic kind of series in audiobooks. The creators had to make videos about that pretending they were shocked to hear what they were hearing. It was a lot of fun making that content for the client who wanted that kind of content.

I could see that being popular. I have a quick story here about when my daughter played premier soccer. We were at a game and all of these women next to me had their iPads out. They were reading, and I was listening to Fifty Shades of Grey and watching the game. I was the only one sharing. Finally, I looked at them, I’m like, “Are you guys reading Fifty Shades of Grey?” They’re like, “Yes. Don’t tell our kids.”

At least I can get away with cheering because I was listening to the book. How has ChallyPop changed the way you personally think about creativity, work, and being a creator yourself? You went to work from someone else, where you probably had directives and different goals than you do now. How did all that change for you?

Resilience And Collaboration In Crisis

I started my story by telling myself I wasn’t a freelancer, then I started my platform BookInfluencers.com. A few years ago, I became very sick. I had a diagnosis of lymphoma. I came into a very difficult situation in which I was very terrified of losing my company. I reached out to a competitor, basically, which is the Tandem Collective in the United Kingdom. I simply asked them, “Would you be willing to take over my company from me because I’m dying?” I was quite sure at that moment also because what the doctor said that I wasn’t going to make it.

I asked her to take over my company and keep my freelancers that I hired at the moment at work. She didn’t know me before. We only met because of that very difficult situation. She said to me, “I will help you. I will babysit your company so that you can focus on getting healthy and get back.” She could have done bad things to me by taking over the company. Even though I handed it to her, she didn’t. She babysat company and gave me the time to undergo chemotherapy and focus on myself.

After a little less than a year, I survived because I’m still sitting here. When I came back, she had a voice note while I was in my bed, trying to get through chemotherapy. I was not interested in work or whatsoever. Even though I’m quite the workaholic. When I was sick, I didn’t have energy or time to listen to anything. She would now and then voicemail me about how things were going. She would pop in some ideas and to trigger me a bit to keep on thinking about the book community and work.

When I got better, came back to my company and was ready to take over this role of the CEO again, I said to her, “Remember, when you sent me a voice note months ago about this and this idea?” That was the idea of the UGC campaigns. I said, “I’m interested in going forward with that. Would you want to go into business together with me?” From that horrible situation where we were two companies, me with BookInfluencer.com and her with M10. We both still have our own companies, but now also together, we have ChallyPop. ChallyPop is the baby of a fairly difficult situation. The UGC campaigns with ChallyPop come from a terrible situation.

What a great story about a dark time. My next question was, what has been the hardest part of your journey so far as a co-founder? You answered that in advance. It’s funny we have an author named Sandy Duarte who had stage 4 lymphoma as well. She kept a journal called Cancer Ramblings, and she now goes to cancer centers. It inspires people in your position that there is life after this and you’re going to be okay.

Some people aren’t okay, but those raw feelings at the time she shared those with people. It resonates because they’re like, “That’s exactly what I’m going through. You made it out and so can I.” I should introduce you guys sometimes. You probably would like each other. If you could change one widespread belief in the publishing and brand marketing in a world about paying creators. Many people don’t want to pay creators. What would that be?

Fair Compensation As A Token Of Appreciation

Look at your own life. If you get asked to create something or someone, you want to do a good job. You want to put in the time. In terms of books, people put in the time for you to read your book. Not only that. They go to the camera and make a nice picture and share their thoughts or even better. They make a video to try to create something that is motivating to their followers. They give you the platform of their channel that they have been building. Many have been building that for years and years. They are sharing the product that you gave them with their following. That is a huge gift.

It is a huge gift, and I know that a lot of authors are like, “I’m giving them a free book.” I know, but they get free books all the time. The good creators get free books pretty much on a daily basis. They have to choose between, “Which book am I going to put first this time?” Incentivizing creators has nothing to do with bribing them to do something. It’s a token of your appreciation for the fact that you are choosing my book over the other. I appreciate you for taking the time, putting in all your creativity to make something nice and showing my book to the following that you have worked on so hard.

It’s only fair to compensate them. It doesn’t have to be thousands of dollars like for some other industries where people get paid huge amounts of money to create something. A little token of appreciation. It’s normal to do something like that. If you ask anyone to do something for you that is not within your family. Wouldn’t you feel like, “I have to give something in return to compensate even if it’s just baking an apple pie?” You give someone a thank you for the energy that they put in. That could be the same for creators putting in their creativity, their energy, and giving you access to their followers.

That’s one thing that impresses me about this group. They are very reasonably priced out there. When I looked, I was very impressed with that. Last question. When you imagine ChallyPop five years from now, what does success look like for you in terms of impact on creators and on that widening marketing ecosystem?

Strategic Flexibility In Entrepreneurship

I am not so much the person that looks so far ahead normally, because I know things change so much. With TikTok, as I said, when we started this, TikTok was not a thing. Now, it’s TikTok all over the place. If I would schedule everything five years ahead, maybe there’s another type of TikTok then that is taking over everything. I have to shift all my plans for it.

That’s why I started the business in the first place because I didn’t want to work at a big corporation anymore. I like to be flexible. I like to be able to adjust to new situations, find new ideas, and be creative about things coming on our path and trying things. Even if they fail. Get back up, back up and look at other opportunities. Naomi, who is the CEO of Tandem, we both have ChallyPop. We are always looking around us and motivating our team to keep their eyes and ears open.

We want to know what’s happening within the book community, but also beyond the book community. Also, what is happening in the influencer and creator land, what can we adapt to, and what do publishers and authors need at this moment. How should we adapt to that and help them move forward?

The most important thing when I look at ChallyPop for the next five years is that we will be able to cater to our clients and keep on helping them with all the changes in the world in tech and in social media. My plan would be to still be relevant to our clients and not stick too much in the past. What is Twitter? It doesn’t even exist anymore. Adjust and make sure that we keep on helping authors and publishers to reach readers and make sure people keep on reading.

That is such a great answer because I don’t know about other businesses out there. The publishing book industry is one that changes constantly. We have the Perfect Reader Playbookthat just came out. And I’m looking at the past couple years where things have shifted altogether. Amazon changed their algorithms altogether. We all had to adjust. I still had people coming to us to take classes that are like, “You’re wrong about Amazon.” I’m like, “How long are you going to take this class?” It does shift constantly. That was a great answer because as entrepreneurs in this industry, we have to be shifting all the time. I love to admit you fail because I fail too. I feel like.

It’s part of being an entrepreneur. It’s part of it. If we don’t try, we don’t succeed either.

Human-Centric Business Relationships

That is very true. Antina, if we want to find out more, how do we get a hold of you so that we can find out more about what you do and what your offerings are? Again, you guys her offerings are very reasonably priced. She has a very trustworthy business in this industry. I would go to her before I would look at Fiverr or contact an online TikTok person. This is solid stuff here. You could save yourself a lot of heartache going here instead of some of these outside sources.

Thank you so much for all those beautiful compliments. The easiest way to reach me is by emailing me on Antina@BookInfluencers.com. That’s the easiest route. Tell me who you are, which book you wrote, or which books you have on your slate, and if you’re interested in talking about what direction you’re looking for. From there, we can discuss. Maybe we can do a video call to get to know each other, and I could understand what you’re looking for, and then we will see from there. Let’s chat first.

That’s good. Thank you so much for taking the time to be on the show.

You’re very welcome. Good luck with your show.

Thank you.

Important Links

• Antina van der Veen on LinkedIn
• Antina van der Veen Facebook
• ChallyPop
• Antina@BookInfluencers.com
• BookInfluencers.com
• Fifty Shades of Grey
• The Tandem Collective
• Perfect Reader Playbook

About Antina van der Veen

Antina van der Veen is Founder & CEO of Bookinfluencers.com and Co-Founder of ChallyPop. Both companies have a strong focus on book marketing. From book tours to TikTok SparkAds promotions and UGC content. Antina lives in the Netherlands and works from home with a team of freelancers from all over the world.

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